At the party to celebrate my upcoming wedding a couple of Fridays ago, we finished the night with Mr. Acker Bilk’s “Stranger On The Shore”. After some frenzied numbers it was a signal to wind things up, turn the lights back on, put the chairs up on the tables, etc. And it worked a dream. Except – I’d left the CD-R playing and so the next track started – “Hoots Mon” by Lord Rockingham’s XI. Not one person in the room had been born when that record was released, but everyone went crazy to it, frugging away to the irritation and bafflement of the poor bar manager who’d come down to see us off. The perfect ending. I’m delighted to see both records feature in Marcello’s new singles list, which I think is my favourite thing he’s ever written and which you should check out immediately. Little to quarrel with on my part, though I’m not 100% convinced about that Connells record…